Chapter Nine: Two Damn Problems

Colin rubbed the crust of his eyebrows as he opened his eyes, his powers activated and his eyes glowed for a second. Taking a breath in he looked above him and saw the entire routine that people took in the morning. Looking above him, the walls did nothing to break the view of auras.

He looked at the floors above him, he closed his eyes and tried to ignore the beast with two backs above him. Standing up he turned his head to the left and stood confused for a second. Colin could have sworn that the couple on the floor above him was a straight couple; he looked over and saw a woman sitting down presumably on a couch.

He smiled knowing that he could at least make himself feel better about last night with ruining a relationship. Reaching over, he grabbed his unused walker; he knew the streets he walked, and thus it laid covered in dirt over in the corner. Grabbing it he stood up and placed himself by his doorway.

He thrusted the walker into the ceiling and hearing the noise he heard, he backed up and changed his perspective a bit. He watched the woman stand up and the two men quickly freak out as they realized that somehow they had been caught. Seeing the woman knock on the door, he backed up and instead decided to let the conflict take its course.

Walking forward, he saw Elias sitting in his living room; he was meditating and seemed to be surrounded by weak auras. Confused by this he walked forward and opened his door, he saw about nine or so auras mediating in a circle in his living room, Elias completing the circle. They turned towards him as he entered the room.

“I didn't know you had a guest, we should probably stop this." A dragon said as he turned his head and looked at him. He turned his head and looked at the strange man, they must have been some head group of Kagens. “However, he can see and hear us; so it doesn't look like you're talking to a group of disembodied voices."

“Yes Dawn, he can see us; aura transmissions won't be noticed by normal people and I tried to do it while you're asleep, sorry." Elias said, he sounded calm and normal; different than his excited pace. He was also in different clothing, wearing a set of red armor with a cape on his back; the same that the council was wearing.

“Well you might as well join us, your knowledge could be important to the future." An owl said turning towards Colin. The blind lizard walked forward and sat down, as the Kagen council moved out of his way and around him.

“So then Daybreak, you can see him in this universe's future. Does it involve Twilight? " Dawn, the dragon and as it seemed leader of the group said turning to the owl. The owl turned his head and turned it again sighing.

“My powers do not work well in this world, what I can see is limited; but I can assumed he will be involved and so will the Outsiders; Twilight is directly intertwined with the future and this city." Daybreak said sighing as he admitted something that seemed bigger.

“And the great Kagen foresighted fails, we might as well tell the Outsiders the story then, the more prepared they are, the more we are likely to keep this universe and the less lives extinguished." A hyena, later known as Noon said. Colin looked at him, he didn't like his aura; the could be said of the wolf next to him.

“You're right." A crocodile, known as Dusk said. “I am one of the few to be a dimensional Kagen as well, and have recorded our history, you might have known that we started in a dimension and spread to a universe and then we started to control multiple universes, overlooking them with careful precision; it was then that we met the Riftwalkers."

“I know them the most." A deer, known as Midday said, “They are like us, controlling multiple universes and while we look over multiple universes all at the same time; they are universal nomads. They have a more democratic approach, we learned to appreciate it; they send out agents to a few universe and these agents can move through Rifts from universe to Universe, taking companions and fixing problems."

“And I know the war." Dawn said. “In my dimensional form, I was one a tyrant but in the war, I wanted that first Earth and we lost everyone lost; Basil, The Rifts, their leaders, and the Outsiders in Carson City, and they had brute force and power on us. There Will is powerful and we know only control a few set of universes and while they have stopped, the message is the same; The Kagens will have lost."

Dawn looked around at the Kagen Council and frowned a bit, all of them looking sad as they remembered their faith.

“These few universes we have will not reform, and when the last universe will have gave its breath we will lose, maybe we will see Koji and his friend again, it would be nice to be peaceful with them for once." Dawn said, even Colin could tell he was ashamed. “Even while in most universe, a Kagen dimension is a near constant, except where it isn't; the Rifts are restricting them; they know our egotistical boundaries and our need to expand like the we have a Manifesto Density, but we have softened."

“Perhaps Kagens have lived to long." Elias said as he raised his voice and seemed to raise his option among the council. “We Kagens have lived through multiple forms and regenerations; and imagine how we must look to this mortal being; imagine knowing that your universe ends and before you do as well."

Colin raised an eye as Elias pointed him and his mortality out, he saw a strange fluctuation in Elias's aura as well.       

“Bright don't speak like that, your brother." Dawn said as he became regretful again.

“Do not dare to say that, my brother is a traitor, we have lived so long and become soft; we perhaps would be better to finally end ourselves in a state of peace! The Rifts will control the universe and they too like us will fall, and that is all what happens" Elias said a tear running down my eye. Colin knew what he meant, even if he couldn't understand the problem. “Ah yes, my brother, we should talk about him."

“Twilight started as the most reasonable Kagen, during our dimensional phase; he converted most of us into the reasonable men we are today, when back then we were monsters." Dawn said as he reflected on his previous form.

“He killed us all and made us all reborn." The wolf said as Colin turned towards him and listened to his story. “He and Koji were so beautiful and bountiful, in the old days they could have been called a universal constant. How foresight is twenty-twenty."

“Twilight, however went a little mad when he went into his ommiversal phase; we all do sometimes. However, he became a real ass; after the peace was established he wanted to regain the multiverse again, we attempted to keep him in control; he escaped; the one great leader of Shark Kagens had gone rouge. Bright is temporary in his position." Dawn said taking over the conversation again.

“He escapes into this universe and while we couldn't track him, we sent Bright down to track him which didn't help because of you trapping him under the crust." Sunset, a bee with a strange bejeweled stinger said.

“Yes, we do apologize about that; as well as your regeneration." Colin said to Elias, who nodded back. He seemed different now; the Kagen council was effecting him seemingly.

“We won't keep you here forever, but now we don't know where he is, or if he is on the Earth, he might be on space or even in a different planet; but his affinity for this planet suggests he might want to start at the source." Evening, a hummingbird said as he flew around in his spot.

“You are right with that assumption, I can feel him; he is close somewhere on this planet but I can't tell." Elias said as he spoke to the council, he closed his eyes and decided to close the conversation. “I believe that is a good update."

“Ah yes, before you two go, would you like the council to talk about project Dhampir?" Dawn said as Elias, grabbed a cube like device on the ground, and pulled it disrupting the auras. Dawn disappeared as he and the council were hung up on.

“Well then Colin, that was interesting; today we are going to look for Twilight; my brother is a traitor to the Kagens and we need to find him; I think Dustin needs some time to himself." Elias said as he stood up and looked at Colin. They were about to get down to business.

…

Dustin didn't have the patience to deal with his shit. As he woke up rubbing the crust out of his eyes, he groaned; he should have known that the universe would take Ronan away from him. Dustin stood up and put on his clothes as he walked towards the bathroom.

He looked in the mirror as pulled a piece of lint out of his hair and started to brush his teeth. He should have known that the universe would never be happy so long as he was. With Ronan he was happy and the universe wanted to take that away from him and make him miserable today.

So he instead decided to ignore it, the universe had no right to tell him whether or not to be happy or not and no matter what he wasn't going to stop him from having the best day ever. At least that is what he told himself as he spat out the toothpaste in his mouth. Looking back up at the mirror, he knew that promise couldn't be held.

So he had a few objectives instead, objectives sounded more objective and less depressing to break than a promise; it was like calling “getting fired", “reducing you to a neutral income position in order to better increase network efficiency". So he decided to set himself a few goals to follow in order not to look like a train wreak in progress.

First off he was going to find some sort of information on where they took Ronan, they being the Neuroseekers moved their base around as if they wanted to protect it. Surely still they could have been tracked, if they didn't completely shut everyone out and right now it seemed that they were keeping themselves and by extension, Ronan, hidden.

Secondly, he wasn't going to cry; he was going to stand up for himself and keep himself stable; he could cry later or be happy with how much he cried before. Thirdly, he was going to make sure his day wasn't affected; he still had to work for the Outsiders and he needed their resources in order to find Ronan, that was non-negotiable.

Fourthly, he needed to convince the Outsider higher ups that the Neuroseekers, one did kidnap Ronan and two they are more than a sufficient threat to the safety of New York; which might have been harder done than said. So as he walked out of the bathroom and into his living room, he sat down and tried to see if anyone was reporting last night's incident.

“Good morning, we have tons of news for you; last night three supervillain incidents all related to scientific symposiums; we have no information regarding the group that funded or carried out this event; but more on that in twenty minutes." Tom Eccleston said as he read of his teleprompter, meanwhile Sally Sparrow looked a more dead than usual. Dustin cursed himself and the twenty-four hour news cycle for ignoring Outsider events.

“Now then on to a more interesting topic, recorded at three in the morning." Sally Sparrow said as he segwayed the news straight into a story.

…

“Hello Tom, I am here at the Providential Dam." Sally, from a few hours ago, said seemingly more awake then. She was holding onto railing and behind her the seas raged; but as the camera man turned they instead saw the calm waters of New York harbor.

“Now this big old thing keeps all of this." She said as the camera turned over again and looked over the sea. The camera focused on the raised waves, splashing against the top of the dam and nearly splashing here. “Out of this."

The camera turned again and looked again at the New York Harbor, it was obvious that it was Dam and it was keeping the rising sea waters from flooding New York City. The camera man held the position looking over the harbor for a few seconds before turning back on Sally and letting her hold the story again.

“Now then, we don't want this in that and that in this; first the New York Harbor; is a massive source of fresh water and secondly we would all flood and die." Sally said keeping her sarcastic edge on. Next to her was an engineer on the Dam with her and he looked ecstatic to be there. “Now then someone has been waiting patiently for their fifteen minutes of fame, so here is Gene Herman."

“Hello Sally, I am here because this dam is a problem. It cannot hold back the continuously rising water, and in a few years we have reason to believe that it will spill over. Now we should build it up, but we would need to use the same contractor as before and the Environmental Bunch isn't so keen on letting us use their strengthened trees so much, as they say we choke then by covering them in dirt and concrete." Gene, the engineer said as he held onto the microphone. “This is a plea for help, please a few more trees will not hurt; the oceans will stop rising but not before New York floods."

…

Dustin groaned, he knew the Environmental Bunch were still a pushy when it came to their precious trees; yet they were apparently not suppling any. The city couldn't flood, he couldn't dare to hold back that water and he decided then and there to instead focus on the bunch and get them to build the dam a layer higher.

He put on his perception filter and walked outsider. Looking at the ten o'clock high sun he started his venture south and made his way towards Ellis Island and the living base of the Environmental Bunch. He continued forward and eventually swam through the fresh water of the Manhattan Harbor.           

….

Finding Dustin at the edge of Ellis Island, the shark pulled himself up on shores and looked at the massive immigration building; now taken over by a mass of vines and large thorny plants that ran through the buildings. For all that he had seen in the last hundred or so day; he say that only ranked only on the edge of normal comparing what he had seen with his eyes.

He walked forward, a bit bored but he figured it New York flooded then he couldn't save Ronan and where is the fun in that. Walking forward, he figured there might be some sort of security system; perhaps he touches one of the vines and it tells them that someone is near.

So very carefully, he rose himself by pushing water and he looked for a vineless opening in the ceiling or walls. As he landed on the ceiling, it looked strained; being so and so years old and having heavy gigantic vines on top didn't help it to keep its structure. The vines were probably ruining underneath and through the ceiling as well, keeping it only a reminder of the past.

Looking forward, Dustin looked at the large tree in the center and saw there were no vines around it; he did always like to make an entrance. Groaning and walking over vines and towards the tree, he felt the base rumble under him as he attempted to make his way into the Environmental Bunch's building.    

Stumbling around he felt the roof shake underneath him and continued forward, towards the tree. Feeling the roof start to crumble, he stood still and got ready to fall in. Slamming his foot down against the roof, he felt the vines and the roof finally give out from the entire force of his foot.

The roof collapsed below him and pulling up the water in his container, Dustin slowed down his descent onto the ground and landed in the middle of the Environmental Bunch's base. Their crowd gasped as he descended onto the ground and landed in the center.

Dustin didn't have time for that shit and leaned against the tree something that would surely be seen as a sign of disrespect towards them. Smiling with a near slasher smile he prepared to pull water out of his containers and threaten Treehugger in order to build the dam but in he was instead treated.

“So then you come in here and expect something." Treehugger said as he lifted his hand and large thorny roots grew out of the ground and around Dustin, trapping him. “Unfortunately it seems you aren't as far thinking as your other friend; if you would like to talk about the dam press one, if you'd like to talk about our treaty then tough luck."

“Well then, ok; ugh." Dustin said as he tried to free himself, he needed to get through this and save New York City; he had to; he really had to at least one more time until he destroyed a million hearts to save his own.  He tried to pulled himself out of the vines but found himself stuck as Treehugger clamped down on him.

“Who did this to you, Riptide; who pushed you so far that you finally snapped; we had seen this coming, we always do. What happened to you?" Treehugger said hoping for a response from Dustin but the shark stayed silent. “Fine then, there was no need to act as you had done and a simple offer to knock on the front door would have worked."

Dustin made a sound similar to a bull after seeing the crimson stain of red and he seemingly tried to push himself through the vines. Internally he screamed in pain as the thorns rubbed into his body and most likely infected him with some sort of toxin he would have to deal with later.

“Please, don't waste your energy; even you couldn't escape. Instead I will let you leave out of the kindness in my heart and allow the treaty to still stand, feel lucky Outsider; this is a clear invasion of our base, feel gracious we don't want this war." Treehugger said as he gloated to Dustin, the shark's body burnt as he felt the toxin start to act on his system. Either that or he couldn't stand the fact that Treehugger was being the bigger man for once.

“Fix the dam; you have an obligation to New York to do so." Dustin said, the words barely escaping out of his mouth before his eyes started to weakly close and open. Dustin was dangerously on the edge and needed to escape before any more of the toxins could be injected.

“I have no obligation to New York; I do however have an obligation to the trees in this city; for years they have been reduced to nothing but pretty land cappers; no one uses them for their true potential." Treehugger said as he walked up to the large tree in the center of his base and looked at it; he smiled as he placed his hand against the bark and felt he life energies flow through him as well.

Dustin's face was turning pale, his breaths were becoming weaker and he knew he couldn't survive like this for much longer; still he held on to his fragile existence; knowing that he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he let go before he saved Ronan.

“Trees ruled the Earth for thousands of years, like us there is one on nearly every continent, even Antarctica. Yet still you treat them like they are inanimate objects, when they are living. The trees cry out to me when they are chopped down, asking if they did something wrong…" Treehugger said as he walked over to Dustin and releasing the grip on his hand; released the Outsider from the toxic vines.

“Be careful for the next few minutes, the toxic won't push you further as it is metabolized as instantly as it enters the body and becomes a bit of dopamine; you might feel a small bit of happiness for a few seconds." Treehugger said as he watched the color return back to Dustin's face and the Outsider started to breathe again.

“Now then Outsider, I have no reason to protect the people of New York; one the people who live here are pricks; two, no one tells us who really had the original pizza shop and three, I want to protect the land." Treehugger said as Dustin started to laugh a bit, the toxin getting metabolized as it entered the shark's body.

“You do have an obligation, you signed that treaty; and you will probably regret it massively if this sort of information gets out to the public." Dustin said as he stopped laugh and he felt himself return to a relative level of normal. “They are only trees, even if they are living they have billions of forces over us; and you think we can make a dent in the Earth?"

“Yes, that is the entire tenant of our organization, to protect the trees and the Earth no matter what." Treehugger yelled as Dustin started to point out flaws in their plan and was getting very close to winning.

“You think that the Earth is weak enough to need protection; it is a massive living, self-correcting beast, if we screw up the Earth will fix itself in a million years, and we won't be there. So maybe you're so selfish, you feel the need to push the lifespan of human nature." Dustin said as he started to stand up as well, he leaned against the massive tree; this time remembering it would be disrespectful.      

“Or maybe we're just a group with Earth based superpowers; when the random superpower generation screws up and creates me; you have to go with the flow and alter some things to appear less as a hypocrite." Treehugger said as he started to realize Dustin was getting under his skin.

“Fine then, we still have to protect the people of this planet first; so here is how we settle this little dam problem." Dustin said; laughing at the pun he made. “We fight, whoever can trap each other for more than twenty seconds wins and gets the other to do as they please; either I leave you alone or you build the dam, that should settle this petty fight of ideals."

“I say your right." Treehugger said as he quickly took control of the ground and jutted up two vines.

“Well may the best win." Dustin said as he jumped away from the vines and pulled out his water, he froze the water and threw a shard of icicle into the vine. As the vine died; Dustin looked around and decided to quickly work for it; running towards a hose nearby, pushing members out of the area.

“Let's see how you do when I can produce my own water." Dustin said as he drenched himself in water with the hose; Treehugger standing back and not sure of what to make the show being given to him. However, as the shark's skin started to turn into pure ice Treehugger was slightly afraid of what was beginning.

Out of his feet, a small river of water followed out of his feet and onto the ground. He walked forward, the water spilling on the ground as he approached Treehugger.  Two vines jutted out towards him and he jumped up pushing himself around with the water on his body.

Water sprayed out of his body in a circle like formation and as some landed on the ground; he quickly froze it and threw it towards Treehugger. The wolf jumped out of the way of the icicle bullets approaching him and threw up another layer of vines to block them. As the vine was pulled back into the ground, the ice melted as it was pulled off the vine.

Running forward, Dustin pulled back his fist and engulfed it a block of ice. He saw Treehugger and punched forward, seeing the leader react he opened up the ice block, attempted to trap him and end the battle. Seeing the trap, Treehugger once again summoned a vine.

The vine pushed him up into the air leaving Dustin with his ice fist entrapped in the vine. He saw Treehugger above him, a fitting metaphor. He summoned all the water he could muster and formed a pillar of ice. Matching Treehugger in height, he stood carefully seeing they were just below the vine suspended ceiling.  

“Give up, I will never for a group of trees into slavery under mankind." Treehugger yelled as he summoned two more vines, standing to his side and getting ready to strike on Riptide. Dustin stood ready and wondered what he could even say, he didn't want to hurt Treehugger but he wished to do something of worth.

“Trees don't care, if they did they would have rebelled. This tree here is the same as every other tree, it isn't special and you've enslaved it by forcing it to be a center piece to your building and forcing it to hold up your building." Dustin said finally as his trump card was activated.

“So what, it's different; I have something, I have a right…" Treehugger said arguing as he threw forward his two vines. Dustin flew out of the way and the tower of ice melted down to the ground and splashed down. Dustin pulled his liquid body upwards and once again slowed down his decent and landed on the ground.

Standing up he looked at the members of the Environmental Bunch, they looked confused; as if he had just confused them on everything they had every known and now they need to change their logic, adapt. Treehugger looked particularly sour as he lowered the vines.

“You don't have a right, if you say that others don't have a right; being a hypocrite will get you killed, I'm sure a few trees won't mind being put in a dam." Dustin said as he calmed down knowing the battle was over. Relaxing, Dustin splashed off his ice form into the ground and returned to his normal form.

“Maybe you're right." Treehugger said; he suddenly seemed more peaceful more open to change. Laughing he said “Perhaps we can use some of the racist trees."     

Dustin decided to laugh back and so did the entire Environmental Bunch; they gave unnerved glances over to each other concerned by their leader's sudden change in personality. Dustin stuck out his hand, and Treehugger bowed at him before accepting the hand shake and having a laugh.

…

“I can attempt to triangulate his signal, but I can feel him equally; I can tell any difference anywhere; he deliberately hiding himself." Elias said as he walked around the park they were in. Leaning against the tree he looked around, it was more than likely that Twilight was in the city, he followed the clichés far too much not to stay in the city of adventure.

So looking around, he knew that it was possible that Twilight was looking right at him as he thought. Elias looked over to Colin, who would be more than blind to any of Twilight's attack. Even worse, Twilight could have travelled back in time.

“Calm down Elias, you very tense." Colin said to him from the swing he saw sitting in, of course very tense was just code for, “your aura has let you down". And so Elias took a few breaths, he knew that while the entire set of buildings around him could collapse instantly as Twilight vaporized the water supply and turned it into plasma.

“Really Tense." Colin added as Elias made a pouty face at him. Colin rolled his eyes and clenched his fist. Colin placed the fist near his mouth and blew up his middle finger to Elias. “I can see your contours, nice tongue; also guess what also I can see, it also rises."

As Colin pointed at his middle finger, Elias realized what he was talking back and quickly jumped onto a bench, holding his hands over his crotch. Elias had a dirty smile on his face and a blush on his face; he looked like he wanted to disappear.

“So then Bright good to see you're on the surface."

 Elias shivered as he thought Twilight had suddenly decided to legitimately sneak up on him. However, he quickly realized that Colin would have warned him in that case and instead turned around to see someone else. Octavian had decided to join them in the park; Twilight took a breath of relief as he knew he didn't have to die.

“Yeah, good to see you Octavian too; actually I go by Elias now." Elias said as he talked, putting his hand on his chest as the shark realized that he was moving his hands with his words. Putting his hands away and making a dirty look at Colin he focused back on Octavian. The shark seemed happier and less stressed. 

If was different seeing the general in civilian gear, he was wearing a plaid shirt and cargo shorts; as well as a necklace with a blue-ish gemstone. Elias looked into the gemstone and a purple wave came out and revealed it was more like a wave pool than a gem. He shook his head and backed up.

“Well Elias, see you're working with The Outsiders now; you have a good group; stand by them don't let them down; well I have to get some places and quick, but it was nice seeing you." Octavian said and as soon as he arrived he had left.

“Well then Colin buddy old pal; we've got some searching to do, but maybe first we can go through time or something, maybe Rio in 5510, I here they're having the second Olympics but even more, I want to take to a world of auras so that you can feel normal; and I know that it exists, that in all of the infinite universes and infinite planets, one world of complete aura exists and I will find that too." Elias said to Colin as the lizard realized something and teared up; he stood up and hugged Elias.